Cost of Living in Venezuela
Image credit: Wilfredor
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Venezuela: $4,218/capita.
Cities in Venezuela
Income Category
Happiness
5.6 / 10
#77 globally
GDP per Capita
Population
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 62% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Child Education
Public-school quality, expat access, instruction language, and homeschool legality for relocating families.
Public schools
How realistic the local public-school path is for a relocating family in Venezuela.
Quality
Limited public-school fit
Expat access
Usually not practical for expats
not practicalInstruction
Spanish
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
Venezuela's public-school path is not usually a compelling default for expat families seeking predictability and strong support.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Even where resident enrollment is possible, Spanish-medium instruction and system instability make the public route usually unattractive for expat families.
❓ Homeschooling
Not specifically regulatedVenezuela has constitutional provisions for education but homeschooling is not specifically addressed. The economic crisis has severely disrupted formal schooling. Not a primary destination for worldschooling families under current conditions.
Homeschool legality in Venezuela — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Childcare & Domestic Help
Current city samples for the family-support costs we track in Venezuela.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$325-$500
1 tracked city, not a national average
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$575-$850
1 tracked city, not a national average
Source: curated family relocation research
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Venezuela.
Method: country metrics come from public system indicators, facility coverage reflects mapped providers we can inventory, direct pricing only reflects observed self-pay pages, and relative care cost can fall back to broad cost-of-living healthcare indices. Sparse pricing does not imply sparse healthcare availability.
Healthcare system
LimitedGood national coverage help, but hospital capacity looks tighter and maternal outcomes are weaker.
Public care
LimitedA visible public hospital footprint help, but public funding looks lighter and country-level outcomes are weaker.
Private care
GoodA large tracked hospital and clinic network and a clearly private facility base help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
75/100
2023
Physicians
1.66/1k
2017
Hospital beds
0.99/1k
2020
Out of pocket
30%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
72.7 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
227/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
15.0/1k
2024
International patient readiness
MixedA visible private hospital base and multiple facilities have websites help, but price transparency is still sparse and headline outcomes are less reassuring.
Pricing transparency
LimitedMultiple facilities have crawlable websites help, but published self-pay prices are scarce.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in Venezuela yet.
This usually reflects low online price transparency rather than a lack of healthcare providers.
Notable facilities
System metrics: World Bank WDI · Updated 2026-06-01
Safety & Governance
Street Safety
Source: Numbeo where a city row is matched; otherwise World Bank WGI and country-level safety context.
Political Stability
World Bank WGI scale: -2.5 to +2.5.
Wages by Sector
| Sector | Median |
|---|---|
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
2020 annual wages in Venezuela · Source: ILO ILOSTAT (sector aggregate)
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
About Venezuela
Venezuela is a 28.4 million-person country in Latin America and the Caribbean where relocation needs more caution than bargain-hunting instinct. Caracas is the main expat reference point, usually tied to specific work arrangements rather than open-ended lifestyle moves. Costs can sit extremely low compared with the regional average, but currency volatility makes day-to-day budgeting less predictable than the sticker prices suggest. Spanish is the official language, and limited entry options mean visa planning is a constraint, not an afterthought. The bigger tradeoffs are practical: high crime concerns in major cities, limited healthcare that pushes major care abroad, and unreliable internet with frequent outages and slow speeds. The tropical climate is hot and humid year-round, but infrastructure reliability should weigh more heavily than weather.
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Common questions about Venezuela
Sourced from SortaRich's public-data ranking engine — every figure links to its institutional source.
Is Venezuela a good country to live in?
Venezuela is a moderately rated country to live in per the World Happiness Report (5.6 of 10, ranking #77 globally). Whether it's right for you depends on your priorities — use SortaRich's free quiz to see how Venezuela ranks for your specific income, family, and visa profile.
Sources: World Happiness Report, SortaRich Methodology
How much does it cost to live in Venezuela?
The cost of living in Venezuela is about 62% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), with an overall cost-of-living index of 38. SortaRich personalizes these numbers to your home city's purchasing power so the comparison is real, not nominal.
Sources: SortaRich Cost of Living, World Bank ICP 2021
How far does $1 go in Venezuela?
$1 goes about 21.7x further in Venezuela than in the baseline market — your home-country income stretches that much more (current PPP ratio: 21.70). The figure adjusts every year as exchange rates and local prices shift. SortaRich uses World Bank ICP 2021 as the anchor and Penn World Tables 11.0 for cross-validation.
Sources: World Bank ICP 2021, Penn World Tables 11.0
What visa do I need to move to Venezuela?
To move to Venezuela you have these visa options: Tourist entry: visa_required. Visa rules change frequently — confirm the current terms with the official immigration authority before booking flights.
Source: SortaRich Visa Database
What are the best cities to live in Venezuela?
The best cities to live in Venezuela are Caracas, Valencia, Barcelona — those are the most-searched options among the 3 cities profiled in the SortaRich database. Each city page includes a personalized PPP comparison versus your home city plus subnational price data where available.
Source: SortaRich City Index